Girls basketball: Kaiser powers Broomfield past ThunderRidge

Eagles rally in fourth quarter to top 5A Grizzlies

HIGHLANDS RANCH -- In only her second season with Broomfield girls basketball, Callie Kaiser has made a name for herself as a top scorer. After the team's kickoff to the new year Saturday, she might be known for something else -- her clutch play.

The sophomore spearheaded the Class 4A No. 1 team's 52-45 comeback win at ThunderRidge behind one of her biggest single periods of play to date. The wing rattled off 12 points in the fourth quarter to help the Eagles to overcome a four-point deficit.

Key as her breakout play was, Kaiser was not exactly sure what opened up to blow open the game.

"I don't know what happened, but I just went with it," she said.

Even if Kaiser could not exactly put her finger on how she finished her 18-point afternoon, the results were indisputable. The sophomore's output spurred Broomfield's biggest run of the game right about the time ThunderRidge (4-6) was swinging the momentum its way.

Broomfield (8-1) outscored the Grizzlies 15-2 in the first 4 minutes of the fourth, leaving their hosts scrambling. Kaiser accounted for all but five of those points, most off the run and up the lane. But she also showed her versatility, dropping back to knock down a 3-pointer during the scoring streak. Just moments before the run, Broomfield all but appeared dead in the water, finishing the third with nine points.

"We knew if we'd just settle down and play our game we'd be alright," Kaiser said.

Advertisement

The victory did not win the Eagles style points, but from Brenna Chase's point of view it still carried plenty of weight. From the guard's perspective, the victory gives Broomfield momentum as it enters Northern League play Tuesday at Mountain View. And it goes a long way toward erasing the team's first loss of the season, which came against its last 5A opponent -- second-ranked Arapahoe.

"It was very important for us to win this game," Chase said. "It got our confidence back up."

ThunderRidge was short two starters Saturday, with Taylor Williams fresh off knee surgery and Megan Yoney nursing a broken hand. But even without a complete roster, the former top-10 team did its damage. The Grizzlies drained nine 3-pointers with Cara Lantzy the most dangerous shooter at distance. The senior wing finished with a season-high 15 points, all coming from behind the arc.

"We knew they were a 3-point bomb squad and we did the best we could to cover that," Broomfield coach Mike Croell said. "We let them loose a lot, but overall I'm pretty darn happy with the way we played."

While the coach believes the Eagles still have a ways to go with their game, he is more than pleased with how his young squad has tackled the season as far.

"We've played as tough a schedule as anyone in the state, certainly at the 4A level," he said. "If you would have told me we'd be 8-1 at this point, wow."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.